NASCAR centerpiece: NASCAR clips the Cup cars’ wings

Rob Sneddon

Monday

Mar 22, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 22, 2010 at 10:19 PM

The much-discussed switch from a rear wing to a more traditional spoiler on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup cars goes into effect this weekend at Martinsville. Will the 64½-inch-by-4-inch add-on necessitate a major overhaul on setups or just a minor tweak? Here’s a smattering of opinion.

The much-discussed switch from a rear wing to a more traditional spoiler on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup cars goes into effect this weekend at Martinsville. Will the 64½-inch-by-4-inch add-on necessitate a major overhaul on setups or just a minor tweak? Here’s a smattering of opinion.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition: “We cut it pretty close by starting at Martinsville. That’s as soon as we could get it done. But we’ve had some really good tests over the wintertime as it relates to spoiler implementation. Many of the teams have already got a month under their belts testing at various places around the country.”

Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA Toyota: “We actually ran it about two months ago down in (Florida) on a short track. Everything we’ve done with the spoiler has gone really well. We had the Talladega test (and) that went very well. My first reactions were, obviously it looks better. Every car I’ve run except for the last two years of my life had a spoiler on it. I feel a little bit more comfortable with it.”

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet: “The wing has been pretty good about being underneath another (car). It’s not as bad as I remember it being with the spoiler. The spoiler has some positives and it has some negatives. At the end of the day, what’s the net gonna end up being? Until we get out racing, I don’t know.”

Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford: “I’m really looking forward to the spoiler back on the race car. I had the opportunity to test it at Texas along with Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers. Really, I think that we all had the same feeling – that the car turned a little bit better on corner exit. It seemed like the car had a little bit more front grip than (it had) with the wing. What I think you’re going to see is better racing. The racing has been already pretty exciting from my vantage point. If we improve on that any, this is going to be a really exciting year.”

Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet: “As we race week after week, we’ll learn how to maximize it and squeeze that last 1 percent out. But you’ll hit the ground running, probably 95 percent, then you’ll polish on it.”

Ryan Newman, No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet: “It’s not gonna be night and day. There might be a couple clouds in the sky, but we’ll be fine. I think the fans will see more racing, even on the straightaways. You’ll see more side-by-side, back and forth, nose-to-head, with the competitor down the straightaways. I think that will make places like Michigan and California – some of the tracks that are bigger, notorious for being a little boring through the middle of the race – more exciting throughout the entire race.”

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet: “I was never crazy about the way the wing was mounted on the back of the car. When I envision a wing being put on our car, I envisioned it a little bit more like a Trans-Am car, where it was raised up, more of a cool-looking concept, and also fit a function of aerodynamics. It just made the cars a little bit more futuristic. But the wing that we put on there was just a glorified spoiler. It sat down on the deck lid. It wasn’t very appealing. We weren’t really using it efficiently. So when I heard about going back to spoilers, I was totally fine with it. This car looks good with a spoiler on it. I'm very supportive of it, and the fans seem to be supportive of it as well. That’s important.”

Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota: “With the first race with the new spoiler being at Martinsville, it shouldn’t be that big a deal because there’s really not a lot of aerodynamics there. Once we get to places like Texas, Talladega, some other racetracks that are really, really fast, it should bring out what the drivers were looking for: a better ability to run side-by-side and produce some better racing. It’s all about air. It’s relative to how everybody else moves it around your car.”

NEXT RACE Goody’s 500, Martinsville Speedway

THE LOWDOWN Bristol used to be one of the few tracks where Jimmie Johnson’s pursuers (i.e. everyone else in NASCAR) could gain ground. Not anymore. With his win on Sunday (after a pair of top-10s last year), Johnson joins the short list of Bristol masters. Now it’s on to Martinsville, where Johnson hasn’t finished outside the top five in five years. And don’t count on the new spoiler slowing him down. Crew chief Chad Knaus: “When there’s a major rule change, with the strength we have at Hendrick Motorsports, we typically adapt quicker than most people.”

QUOTE OF NOTE
“To find tracks that really are our weakest tracks, focus on them and get better is a cool thing to experience.” – Jimmie Johnson, after his first career win at Bristol

WHERE TO WATCH
Sunday’s pre-race show on Fox starts at noon EDT, followed by the race at 1:15.

UP TO SPEED

Starting a discussion: Because passing is so difficult at Martinsville, a good qualifying effort used to be essential. During one 30-race stretch from 1960 to 1974, only one winner started outside the top 10, while 13 came from the front row. In the new millennium, however, half the winners at Martinsville have started outside the top 10 (see chart), and the winner’s average stating spot has been 11.25. In modern Cup racing, good pit work and patient driving can overcome a poor start, even at the most congested track on the circuit.

Not bad, not bad: Neither Dale Earnhardt Jr. nor Kyle Busch led a lap at Bristol or mounted a serious challenge to the leaders. Still, there was reason for both drivers – and their teams – to feel upbeat afterward. Each driver suffered a setback of the sort that often led to a poor finish last year. Busch blew a tire and tagged the wall on lap 263; Earnhardt was sent to the rear after being caught speeding on pit road on lap 324. But this time each rallied to a top-10 finish (seventh for Junior, ninth for Busch) that also propelled each into a top-10 spot in the points (eighth for Junior, 10th for Busch).

Milestones: There were a bunch at Bristol. Jimmie Johnson’s win at the track, his first, was the 50th of his Sprint Cup career. It also marked the last time the Sprint Cup cars will use a wing. Johnson won the most races since the wing was introduced in 2007 (22 of 93); Kyle Busch, who won the first race with a wing (also at Bristol) was a distant second, with 13 wins. There was also one troubling milestone for the sport on Sunday: Bristol’s sellout streak ended at 56 races.

ONE TO WATCH: Tony Stewart
WHY HE MATTERS: Runner-up finish at Bristol was his first top-five this year.
WHAT HE SAYS: “Happy with the day.”
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY: Martinsville, where he has two career wins, could make him even happier.